A strategy that I really enjoy is one-on-one teaching. I find that learning is more productive this way since you can tailor your teaching methods to how each student learns individually. Unfortunately this will be a hard task with a class of around 30, plus possibly 1-2 extra classes (depending on rotary). One of my old teachers used to stay after class, and help those that wanted the extra one-on-one time. This is something I would like to do, maybe not in my first year (as I hear it's really busy your first year) but maybe in future years once I'm settled into a school. This strategy is something I like doing, and even better, it's something that I really appreciated from my teacher!
A strategy I would hesitate to use would definitely be cooperative learning. Talking, and discussing isn't so much of an issue, but as soon as a group is being officially marked on a project, or presentation, it suddenly becomes a battle between would did all the work, and what marks each individual student should get. One professors result for these conflicts was to mark separately when the students were 'forced' into groups, and to mark as a whole when students picked their groups. This is a great strategy for most groups, but I know that even I have picked a group simply because they were my friends, or they asked me if they could be in my group. As much as teachers want students to realize maybe their friends aren't the best people to have in their group, I think sometimes they forget what it would be like to tell your best friend you don't want to be in their group because they don't work as hard as you. It's a strategy I would like to use, as I have had a lot of great memories made from groups like this, but I think I just need some more time to think about how I would deal with these issues.
Thinking about Strategies
A strategy that I really enjoy is one-on-one teaching. I find that learning is more productive this way since you can tailor your teaching methods to how each student learns individually. Unfortunately this will be a hard task with a class of around 30, plus possibly 1-2 extra classes (depending on rotary). One of my old teachers used to stay after class, and help those that wanted the extra one-on-one time. This is something I would like to do, maybe not in my first year (as I hear it's really busy your first year) but maybe in future years once I'm settled into a school. This strategy is something I like doing, and even better, it's something that I really appreciated from my teacher!
A strategy I would hesitate to use would definitely be cooperative learning. Talking, and discussing isn't so much of an issue, but as soon as a group is being officially marked on a project, or presentation, it suddenly becomes a battle between would did all the work, and what marks each individual student should get. One professors result for these conflicts was to mark separately when the students were 'forced' into groups, and to mark as a whole when students picked their groups. This is a great strategy for most groups, but I know that even I have picked a group simply because they were my friends, or they asked me if they could be in my group. As much as teachers want students to realize maybe their friends aren't the best people to have in their group, I think sometimes they forget what it would be like to tell your best friend you don't want to be in their group because they don't work as hard as you. It's a strategy I would like to use, as I have had a lot of great memories made from groups like this, but I think I just need some more time to think about how I would deal with these issues.
Heather